The Heart Grow Fonder
by elitemassacre6
Summary: Tired of being shut out by and constantly thinking about Quinn, Rachel looks for an escape.  She finds it.
1. A Granted Wish

The Heart Grow Fonder

By: Elitemassacre6 aka Britt

A/N: So this is based off an image that was on my dash on Tumblr. It captivated me and filled my mind with possible Hayao Miyakazi like stories. Instead of writing one of those, I wrote this. Eventual Faberry. Please, Enjoy.

She's been gone for five minutes, she notices. Bringing her eyes up and away from the Daffy Duck watch Brittany got her for a graduation present, Rachel gazed around her at the lake that she sits at the shore of. She stands, pulling her feet out of the warm, calm, water and pulls her socks and boots back on. The brunette has to close her eyes and breath deep to push thoughts of a fair-skinned blonde not out of her mind, but deeper down into it.

Thoughts of the hazel - eyed beauty plague her day and night, invading her slumber. If they weren't so undeniably hers, she would say it was making her sick to think about the girl who sits six hundred yards behind her in a clearing and in a chair, ray ban shades on and feet up.

Looking down at the row boat to her right, barely rocking in the placid waters, Rachel thinks a short escape is exactly what she needs. The singer notes the little motor in the back and looks back up and across the water to the little island that been calling to her for ten minutes now. Carefully stepping down into the little boat, Rachel decides to row across to the beckoning island.

When she's halfway across, the beauty of the place has already started to calm her. No images of full lips, pale skin and sharp hazel eyes were flashing past her mind's eye. It felt good, being able to think again.

She was almost there now, it had only taken her about five minutes to get a third of the way there. Her island appeared to be about three hundred yards square, and she was beyond excited to explore it and discover what secrets it held.

When she hit land, she easily pulled the lightweight boat up on the grass and mud next to two tall trees, seven feet round at their bases. Rachel looked back across and saw her hat that read "Glee!" on the front and " '12" across the back, resting on the dock she'd left behind

Looking down at her watch again, she noticed she'd been gone for twenty minutes now. The brunette gazed down at her belt when she felt the wood handle of her hatchet graze her right thigh. Her grandpa had given them to both she and her best frind Michael when he'd learned they'd be going up to Canada for a week before they all headed away to different schools in a couple weeks. Both Rachel and Mike had read and loved the book Hatchet and every book that came after it...imagining this accidental escape to a place untouched and a change in their hearts that made them unlike everyone around them. They'd been enchanted by the books as children, and the first time Grandpa Andrew took the two of them camping they'd been ready to try fishing with a selfmade spear or hunting with selfmade bows.

It had taken an hour of explaining from Andrew about why it was wrong to kill animals for enjoyment or sport instead of for food. So instead of hunting, they'd decided to find and observe that forests wildlife, asking Grandpa Andrew for an information on every new thing they discovered. They'd been nine then, and still reread the books now. When she'd been old enough, Rachel decided that she wouldn't eat any meat or anything taken from animals at all anymore, that hour with her grandfather burned into her memory forever.

The brunette patted the leather of the hatchet's sheath, rubbing over the shallow pitfalls of the engraving of her name across the smooth, dark leather. Afterwards, she turned round and walked in between the two trees and into the forest beyond. The smell of the woods around her cascaded down around her, a heady mix of some kind pine or spruce and wild, uncut grass mixed with the smell of fresh running water. That last thing had her completely confused. She was in the middle of a large lake, how could their be running water? Rachel wasn't sure, but she could hear it. Walking towards the sound, she slowly came upon, indeed, running water. A shallow creek lay in front of her, crossing perpendicular to where she stood. As she looked down, she could see a few fish swimming around in the water. The singer figured the slowly moving creek was no deeper than three feet. As she stood up from being knelt down, watching fish, Rachel heard a sound and looked over to her left, eyes widening when she saw a small white tail deer lean down to drink. The deer slowly lifted it's head from the fresh water, and, the liquid still dripping from it's lips, looked over and locked eyes with the brunette, watching her.

Rachel, surprised to say the least, found herself watching her as well. The deer turned it's head slightly, as curious about the girl's presence as she was about her's. After a few minutes, another deer walked into view, sipped from the creek, then nudged the deer with it's nose and walked away. Rachel's own whitetail turned, looked back at her, then walked from view. When the brunette snapped out of it and looked down at the grinning black duck on her wrist, she realized she'd been gone for almost forty-five minutes. There was something about this place, she realized. Unable to currently figure out what, Rachel sung along with the birds above her as she hopped across the creek on rocks. As she continued along she smelled something sweet in the air and walked towards it, finding a bush full of ripe blueberries. She smiled widely and popped a few in her mouth, enjoying the way the juice flooded over her tongue.

01:20

* * *

><p>For the first time since she'd walked into the forest, she thought of Quinn. She had eaten her fill of sweet, delicious berries an hour or so ago, and had leaned against the base of a nearby tree for a rest. She'd checked the duck thirty seconds ago. Two hours, thirty five minutes is how long she'd been gone. Rachel stood up from her tree. She'd found it a straight shot from the rocks she'd used to cross the creek to the berries. She took the hair band out of her hair and put it on the end of a low branch newly graced with leaves before turning straight around and heading back to the creek. She noticed her deer again as she crossed and waved.<p>

She walked straight for another twenty minutes before she noticed something on the ground in front of her. A water bottle. She remembered leaving that directly next to the gateway trees she'd walked right through. But she didn't see them now. It was still just as precariously balanced on the rock she'd layed it on. Without moving her feet, Rachel looked around. She could still hear the creek directly behind her. She wasn't lost. When she thought about it, she should have thought about how strange this place was when she found a creek in the middle of such a small island in the middle of a lake. Either she was asleep and dreaming, or something wasn't right with this place.

02:55


	2. The Foreshadowing Dream

The Heart Grow Fonder

Elitemassacre6 aka Britt

A/N: Chapter 2. Awesome. Thanks to all those who read and reviewed as well as those who put this story on alert, I appreciate it.

11:17

When the small statured brunette awakens, a butterfly flys away, having been perched on her forehead. The thin, cotton, flannel patterened shirt she wore was heavy with dew, and the air was slightly chilly around her. As she stood and stretched, Rachel looked ahead of her to where her two gateway tree's should stand. But, just as yesterday, they were absent. As she recalled her dream, the brunette started to consider the fact that this forest she found herself in was hidden somewhere far from the lake and the island she thought she should currently reside on.

In the dream she'd recently left, she'd been resting against the tree she'd recently stood from, eyes closed. Her grandpa Andrew had quietly found her and awoke her, weaving a tale rich with the details of the place she'd found herself lost in, while he lead her through her forest. They'd crossed the creek and the blueberry bush and kept walking as he told her the story. At a clearing on a hill high above the meandering stream, he'd pointed at her hatchet and then to the nearby trees, nodding before walking away. She'd awaken soon after he'd dissapeared from view.

This place, he'd told her, was in someway enchanted, and when she'd entered through her trees she'd been transported here. By which means he couldn't say. What he did say was that he didn't know how to get back the world she was familiar with, or even if it was possible. He had warned her, for the land she occupied was rife with dangers and she had to be watchful, careful. Because this place was her home now. She'd asked why she'd been brought here, why she couldn't seem to leave. He had stopped walking turning round to stare into her eyes deeply with his which were exact copies.

"Rachel, you wanted an escape. I way to get away and gain perspective on your love and your life. This is what you wished for when you got in that boat and rowed across to that island. Someone was listening."

After that he'd told her to remember all the things she'd seen on the discovery, science, and animal planet channel's. She'd need it all to survive here. They'd watched shows like man vs wild, survivorman, and dual survival together everyweek. Taking the advice seriously in case of future scenarios. Rachel had all that information store in her mind now, and she supposed, that if she was stuck here indefinately, no matter how crazy the circumstances, she'd use it.

She looked down at Daffy, noting the time. She'd been gone for eleven hours and thrity minutes. She carefully crossed the creek now, refilling the water bottle she'd drained when she'd awakened. Her grandfather had mentioned something about a spring while they walked, but Rachel knew to never take a chance on water she wasn't sure about. She screwed the top on and continued on, soon reaching her blueberry bush.

She knew it was about a half an hour walk from where she was to her high ground above deer creek, so she took a piece of tissue out of her back pocket and filled it with berries, carrying it with her as she left, having had her fill of them. As she walked on, she recognized things from her dreams. Patches of wild flowers, a downed tree with a maple sapling growing from it that lied on what her Grandpa had told her was the north south line. She broke a few branches she found laying randomly on the ground and put them on either side of the downed tree trunk, creating something like a compass, the maple sapling directy in the center. The few branches she could carry, she took with her, continuing on through the forest she now remembered vividly.

As she walks, watching and listening carefully, she lets the thoughts of the hawk and hazel eyed beauty come back up from the deepest corner of her mind she could shove it in. She'd been gone for eleven hours and forty five minutes. Were her friends looking for her? Were Michael, Noah, David and Finn climbing through the woods with a search party, brave faces on while they panicked inside? Did Blaine hold Kurt while he cried all night? Did Santana keep a scowl on her face in absent anger while Brittany wondered why Rachel walked away from them? What about Artie, Lauren, Mercedes, Tina? She let her mind wonder about Quinn the most. How did she react when the brunette failed to return to her last night. When she still wasn't back that morning? Would she be happy Rachel was finally gone? The thought of this brought a dull ache to the singer's chest, clinging to her heart. She didn't understand why Quinn wouldn't just let her say her peice and be done.

Rachel had only wanted to apologize for all her highschool wrongs and tell her things she was afraid she would never be able to say if she didn't say it then. The two women were both going to NYU, but Rachel, of all people, knew how big a city New York was. What if she never saw the former blonde again? The words, meant to be spoken, would weigh heavy on her heart as they had since their conception. Pushing it all back down deep as she came up to the site her grandfather had brought her to, the brunette dropped the last of the varied twigs and broken branches she'd been hammering into the soft earth with the back of her hatchet as she went along. She took another tissue from the pack in her back pocket as she sat down on those dropped peices of wood. After going through her pockets, she put all the things she had in that tissue. Taking an inventory. A pack of tissues with six more inside, along with the small plastic bag in came in; a little book the size of her pocket that held information about edible and useful plants from Michael; a lighter David had given her to light the firepit the night before; a full pack of twenty five peices of gum; A bar of dark vegan chocolate; the hair tie she'd retrieved from the branch of the tree halfway between deer creek and the blueberries; her ipod and the headphones; her wallet with a few different plastic cards and thirty five dollars inside; vanilla chapstick; two pens; her hatchet and it's leather sheath; and a knife gifted to her from Noah.

She had alot, she realized. When she looked down at her duck, she realized that it had taken her another hour to get to the site and find out what she had. So that made it a quarter to noon. Her stomach grumbled, so she ate half of the two handfuls of berries she had while she sat, looking over her only worldly possessions. The clothes on her back were dry now, and she wasn't thirsty, due to the juice in the berries, but if it got as chilly at night as it got back in the campsite full of cabins she'd left behind twelve hours ago, then she needed a fire. She knew from the shows she and grandpa watched that now was a good time to get started, after she'd eaten before she got too tired. The tree's above her created a high canopy, so she didn't know what kind of weather could be headed her way. It was time to get to work. Putting all her inventoried items back in their place, Rachel set off to find dry wood for a fire and large branches for a lean-to. As she walked away from her camp site, following the line of the sticks she'd nailed into the ground with her hatchet, Quinn Fabray was once again in her mind.

12:10

"Hey, Q." Brittany spoke as she took a seat next to a reclining Quinn Fabray, noticing the furrow in her brow.

"Britt." the hazel eyed former blonde didn't look over or make a move as she spoke.

"Have you seen Rachel? She was gonna teach me to fish. She said she had to talk to you first."

"Yea. I saw her. She was talking to me about something she said she had to say. That it had been killing her and she had to tell me before we headed to New York."

Brittany shook her head internally at Quinn's callous tone of voice. "What did Rae say it was?"

"Didn't. She was rambling about how New York is big and maybe she wouldn't see me again, and if we did, we'd be different people. So I told her to leave me alone because I was busy."

Brittany couldn't understand they way Quinn thought sometimes. Pushing Rachel away when she wanted to pull her closer.

"But you weren't."

"So she said that sometimes she wished that I would just open up to her. I told her I don't want to talk to her, and she finally walked away towards the lake."

"So why don't you?" Brittany asked, blue eyes locked to hazel, questioning and accusing.

"Want to talk to her?" Quinn said, pretending, wanting the conversation to be over.

"No, Quinn. Don't play stupid with me. Why don't you open up to her. For once in your fucking life? And don't say to me that she's the only person you show any real emotion to besides me and Santana. Because losing your composure for a few seconds and then turning and attacking her verbally the next doesn't count. God, Q. I don't understand you. She was the first person to trust you, to believe in you, to love you. Why do you have to pretend to hate her?"

"Who says I'm pretending?" The fair skinned girl was losing her cool. She didn't know why. Brittany was right. Too right. Perhaps that was the problem.

"I do!" Brittany had stood, kicking over her beachchair in the meantime.

"You know what, fuck you, Brittany! You don't get to tell me how I should act!" She was in the much taller girls face in a second, seething.

"Whoa, whoa...I don't think so Q. You better get away from my baby before I'm forced to fuck you up."

"No, it's okay, San. It's fine. Atleast she's feeling something. We have to help her." Britt knelt down and fixed both she and Quinn's chairs, her heart beat rapidly slowing as she did it.

The leggy blonde was thrown off kilter as she was pushed from the back, falling to the ground and catching herself on her hands and knees. She'd obviously been pushed by an angry Quinn.

"I don't need your fucking help!"

After helping Britt up, Santana forced herself into the taller girl's space, speaking while trying to control her temper.

"I love you Q, and that's the only reason i'm not fucking up your face right now. Britt's trying to help you because she has a heart. That's obvious something you're lacking." the latina began to pull her girlfriend away from the angry pink haired girl, keeping her mouth shut to stop herself saying anything she didn't mean.

"She has a heart, San. It's just broken, and so is she."

00:20

18:00

It's been almost five hours since she started working on her camp site, and the brunette has to say, it looks awesome. Just like the one's she sees on tv. Realizing she had no support beam, she had built a simple a frame. Not wanting to waste the valuable resourse that is her shoe laces, Rachel pulled the fibrous bark off of a tree she'd seen on tv before. She didn't remember the name, but did remember the process. Making to parallel cuts and then removing the valuable portion from the strip she'd cut free, keeping the rest for her fire. It held her a frame shelter together fine. The rest of it, she put under heavy rocks and wood in the creek. It would be ready for more uses in 10 days or so, she remembered.

After all the work, Rachel found herself hungry. The thought of it made her a bit sick. She realized hat she couldn't just eat berries and the plants she'd found edible the for the rest of her life. She couldn't work to make this camp site she now thought of as home safe and get wood for fire and everything else she needed on meager food. Eventually, she'd have to start eating meat or fish. Vegan though she was, the thought of any kind of meat made her hungry. Downing a handful of berries and half a quarter sized peice of chocolate, she got up and walked over to her pile of wood and grabbed a long, straight, stick she'd been eyeing since she brought it back to where she'd been sitting. She'd make a spear to hunt and fish with. She could do that right? Right.

As she pulled the sapling out and replaced her knife for her hatchet to sharpen the tip of her spear, Rachel couldn't help but think about how sharp Quinn's words could be, and how they hurt her as much as she would hurt if she turned the now sharp spear around and stabbed it into her heart.

18:30


	3. Personal Evolution

The Heart Grow Fonder

By Elitemassacre6 aka Britt

Chapter 3:

A/N: Whoa...so, good amount of alerts and favs and I always love to see that, as well as a few reviews which is freaking awesome.

00:18

Brittany isn't surprised when Quinn shows up to she and Santana's room in the Cabin they've rented, knocking on the door for permission to enter. She was almost naked, with nothing on but a pair of boy shorts and the bra that Santana was about to put around her breasts, but she held her from doing so, nodding towards the door. The latina shook her head at her girls methods, but opened the door anyway.

The pink-haired girl walked in, head focused on her boots as she began to apologize about her words and actions. When the door was shut behind her and both Santana and Brittany had forgiven her, she looked up at the blonde and the brunette beside her, eyes widening and breath catching in her throat.

"Um...hrg" she cleared her throat. "Was i intruding on anything?"

"Like you'd care if you were." Santana lets leak out between full lips.

"You aren't, Quinn. Had to take a shower really quick to get all the dirt off of me. Was getting dressed when you knocked. Just a quick experiment." She says, watching Quinn look her up and down before looking her in the eyes and shaking her head so slightly, the blonde isn't sure Santana caught it.

"Yea. Okay, I'm gay. Big non-surprise. And allthough you're beautiful, Britt, you're not Rachel." Quinn wasn't sure why she was talking so much, but she figured if there was anyone she could be honest with, it was her best friends. She was beyond tired of wrapping everthing up tight, tying it to a cinderblock, and throwing it down into the depths of her mind.

"So what the fuck's wrong with you, Q? Why'd you let her walk away? You should've just -"

"What, told her? No. I couldn't. Think about everyone i've ever been with. Either I hurt them or they hurt me. Maybe I'm just supposed to be alone. I don't want to hurt her, okay. Or hurt myself."

After throwing on her off shoulder shirt and short shorts, Britt pulls on her boots while she watches Quinns face. Santana speaks in her stead.

"Think about that though, Q. All that bullshit that happened between you and the people you hurt or hurt you, was in someway involved with Rachel. Finn was becoming so interested in Rachel that you pushed him away and slept with Puck. Finn found out about that because of Rachel. Who also, incase you didn't know, engineered you and Sam's relationship. When you saw Finn and Rachel becoming close again, you got back with him. But then he wanted her again and she wanted him, only god knows why. So the dickhead dumped you at a freaking Funeral to get back with Rachel at Nationals." When the latina was done, she was nodding her head enthusiastically, trying to get Quinn to understand how fucked up all her relationships had been.

"Quinn, did Rachel ever tell you why she broke up with Finn?"

00:22

19:30

The brunette looks around her as she walks down river, carefully using her senses to detect any dangers around her. For now, she finds none and begins to think of her so far failing hunting trip. Twenty minutes into her hunt she'd seen a squirrel standing still in the middle of the trunk of a tree. She'd been reluctant to kill the animal and had hesitated, by the time her spear had stuck into the bark of the tree, she could see the squirrel above high above in the canopy.

To throw the spear, she'd used a more whole-body version of the dart throwing technique that Noah had taught her a day and a half ago. She had beaten him badly once she'd got the hang of it. She hadn't been gone a whole day yet, and had taken to scratching down the hours on the inside of some bark she'd found on the ground with her knife. There were nineteen marks on it now, and if she was honest, she was afraid the bark would be unable to hold all the hours she'd be here.

Noticing another large squirrel off to her left Rachel quickly threw her spear, her thumb and forefinger still hanging pointed outwards as it flew. It looked like she hit it, but the squirrel still scurried away and up the tree, she retrieved the weapon from the tree quickly, curious as to how she'd missed.

A smile graced her features as she saw the fur of the tail caught in the middle of the four points she'd made on the tip of the spear by placing small, carved, peices of wood in the gaps and wrapping wet inner bark in the gap and around the base of the tip till it stuck together. She'd tied some of the elastic from her sock around the bark to kep it all together. She knew she was getting better at throwing the spear. Cleaning the fur away, she walked over to the creek and there was and area where it started to curve again, leaving a placid edge where fish seemed to gather. They were no bigger than her hand, she could see, and her hands were small, but they were food. Walking away from her potential gold mine, she walked looked into the water and stuck her spear in the water to the two foot bottom, noticing how far off it was due to the refracting light. Reading Hatchet so many times was begining to become a real benifit in this place.

Once Rachel was satisfied with the distance between what she'd see and what was true, she walked back to the calm water and watched for the largest fish she could see. As it swam around, she tracked it with her eyes, factoring in the refraction distance the whole time. Slowly, so very slowly, she lifted her spear straight up over the water and then stabbed it down. She squeeled in joy when she pulled the spear free and there was a fish wriggling around on her spear. Moving quickly, she brought out her knife and pressed it into the middle of the fishes head. It stopped movin immediately and she set to do something else she wasn't used too. She stopped and thought about the book again, and then the reappearance of the fish she'd scared away. Pulling out the shoelaces from one of her boots, she strung it through the gills and then the mouth of the fish, tying it on her hip. She looked around for large rocks and peices of tree and gathered them by her the calm spot. slowly, she lowered them in. She moved so slowly that the fish didn't scare comepletely away.

After about twenty minutes she was done and looked down at her duck. Twenty hours gone. Shutting down quickly burgeoning thoughts of Quinn Fabray, Rachel looked down at the wall she'd built around the calm water. There was a spot on her right which opened up, and that was what she needed for now. Pulling the fish on her hip off the impromptu stringer, She cut a slit down the belly with her knife, she proceeded to clean the fish, scraping away scales with the back of her knife. When she was done there were more fish inside her rock wall than there had been before.

Over the next half hour, she caught, cleaned, and strung up another fish and headed back towards home where she was now, roasting her lunch over a fire she started with scraped up bark and a bit of tissue. When the fish were done , she put drank down some of the tea she'd made from a balsam fir she'd found and pulled a fish towards her, picking at fragrant pink flesh and cautiously placing it in between her mouth.

"Oh, god! So good." She quickly found herself devouring her fish and the rest of her tea. She went to refill her water before coming back and making some more tea for after lunch while she thought about wha to do next. Rachel looked over at her pile of wood, and though she figured there was enough for the rest of the night and probably three more, she knew to always have more than you needed, just in case. So she'd do that, gather wood. And try for maybe a squirrel or more fish. Tossing dirt on her fire to put it out, she tied bark around her shoes to keep them closed and took he other shoe string to tie around her waterbottle and keep it with her at all times.

This time, while on her way to her fish pot, the brunette found herself softly singing Florence and The Machine's 'I'm Not Calling You A Liar' as she walked. However, when she heard the chittering of a squirrel to her left and above, she looked up and saw the fattest squirrel since she'd been in her forest. Adjusting her stance to be ready for the throw, she whistled sharply and the squirrel stopped moving to look around. It was then that she launched the spear from her body, her fingers once again hanging in the air as it swiftly flew and then peirced itself into the neck of the now forever unmoving animal. With regret in her heart, Rachel went and retrieved the spear and the squirrel, walking back towards the water to clean it quickly. She hadn't yet been here for a full day, and already this place was changing her so much. She was afraid to know who she would be if and when she left her forest.

20:30

00:24

The answer to the question asked of her had been no, and now she sat on a beach chair facing Santana and Brittany as they sat outside. They had suggested she sit down, and yet the look on their faces didn't suggest that the news was bad.

"Sooo?" she asked, a cigarette, lit, but almost completely unsmoked was in between her fingers.

"Oh yea. So, after we got home from New York and Rachel and Finn had been together for a little over two weeks, she came to my house to ask us about you because she hadn't seen you since then and she was really worried."

"So we told her that you weren't hanging out with her because you didn't want to see Finnept. So she said that she could understand that, but she thought that the your breakup with him was mutual. I told her she must be crazy, because that's a fucking lie."

Quinn shook her head and looked to Brittany to explain the rest.

"So me and San told her that Finn broke up with you, and what he said to you after the funeral. She got super mad, Quinn. She called Finn and put him on speaker phone and yelled at him. She told him that she couldn't believe that he said that to you, treated you like that. That she still hadn't forgotten how much he fucked up at prom. She said fucked up."

"Wait what? She cursed?"

"Yea she did. Q, it was kinda hot." Santana spoke up

"It was. She talked about something you said to her, about how you had your mind set on being stuck here with him. And even though she knew he wasn't good enough for you, she would try to make him good enough. Then she cussed at him again for messing everything up at prom. How she'd brought Jesse to test him and how'd she'd even told him the perfect corsage to get and everything and he still fucked up."

She was smoking that cigarette now, but she dare not interrupt.

Santana took over now. "She said that even with her acting skills she couldn't pretend to care about him anymore. That he was so wrong, because you felt. You felt more than anyone she knew. That he wasn't good enough for you, that maybe only she was. Then she hung up on his dumb ass. She looked at us all apologetically and begged our forgiveness for her acting that way in our presence. She said she couldn't help herself. She was so angry. The last thing she said before she left was that she wouldn't let anyone else hurt you like that."

When her cigarette went out, she lit another and set it between her lips, inhaling. It was a little ridiculous, when she thought about it. It was like everything she did was in someway related to small statured brunette. Rachel had made her quit smoking in february. And yet here she was, smoking again, and all of it related to her in some way. As she exhaled, she switched her gaze from the latina to the blonde.

"I'm not going to ask you why you didn't tell me Brittany. I know you well enough to know there was a good reason, and I trust you. But you, Santana? Since when do we keep secrets like that from eachother?"

"I made her keep it. It wasn't ours to tell, and I figured even you couldn't squander all the chances you had with her. I guess I was wrong. When she comes back, Lucy Quinn Fabray, you tell her. When she gets back."

00:27

24:00

As Rachel finishes the tea she had with the fish she caught for dinner along with the rabbit she's already finished and disposed of, she makes the twenty-fourth mark on her bark calender. She looks around her at the home she's built for herself. On the high hill above deer creek, she's taken all the surplus wood she won't need for the next few days and built something like a wooden fort wall around her home site. Having found some tall logs, the wall is up to her chin and still has gaps and peices missing. She'd taken a break to eat dinner. Standing up, she takes the rest of the logs she's carved into tall stakes and starts to hammer one into the ground.

She'll finish and then go to sleep under the stars she wishes would poke through the top of the trees by the time she closes her eyes. Looking back to the calender near her pine bough bed, Rachel once again wonders about the only thing she's thought about when she isn't thinking of food, water, wood, or a plan to better the home she's made. Her family. Her real family. Brittany with that all knowing smile on her face and Santana next to her with a devilish smirk. Mercedes with her hand on her hip and the words 'oh hell no' on her lips. David with that wide smile on his face and his arms open wide for her. Kurt with a sad look in his eyes when he looks at her and doesn't think she's watching. Blaine with a wide grin that says, 'It'll get better, i know it Rach.'. Michael and Tina offering to dance around childishly with silly smiles on their faces and love for eachother in their eyes. Noah with eyes that always follow her and a smile that's always waiting to make her feel better. Lauren nodding her head towards Finn with her her fists up, question in her eyes. Finn with apologetic eyes and a lopsided smile that makes her want to accept Lauren's offer. Quinn. Quinn with the pack of cigarettes in her shirt pocket that she never smokes. That sexy, elegantly raised eyebrow, stark white teeth with a full pink lip captured between them. A shirt that says she doesn't give a shit and eyes that say she does. Quinn.

As she hammers in another spike, the brunette can't help but examine the girls face in her mind. The way Rachel wants to kiss her when her lip falls free from it's prison between her teeth. How much she loves the gold flecks she can sometimes see in hazel eyes she'll love everyday until the day she dies. And even though she's the one stuck in some random wilderness alone with nothing but a former blonde beauty on her mind, she can't help but wish that said beauty is okay back in the real world.

When she finishes, it's dark, and it seems she gets, unbeknownst to her, both her wishes. The one she can be sure of is beautiful. a few stars poke in between the trees. She sits down on her bed, sips on her tea, and watches the stars that have blessed her with their presence.

27:30


	4. Time Will Tell

The Heart Grow Fonder

By Elitemassacre6 aka Britt

Time Will Tell

A/N: another load of favs/subs and reviews for the last chap, so thanks alot for taking the time to do that.

07:18:22

If Rachel was asked the question about what had changed the most about her since she'd been in her forest, she'd answer that her senses had become much sharper than she thought they ever could have. Especially now. Four days ago, she was walking along deer creek, following it's meadering path and thinking about Quinn; a huge mistake. In hindsight, she guessed that the spear in her hand and her first attempt at a bow on her back, leaning over the water, she may have looked threatening. She can't imagine that though, as small as she is. All she heard was the rustling before she tried to jump out of the way, she was partly sucsessful.

The white tail buck's antlers caught the side of her stomach before it dissapeared from view, running away towards safety. The left side of her abs had been bruised badly, and so had the bottom of her ribs underneath. The pain is still sometimes present, but only as a dull ache from sore muscles. She had sat inside her home for two days, eating fish and rabbit she caught before the sudden attack. She touched the are now as she watched the fish she was trying to smoke for the first time on its rack.

As a result of that attack she'd been more observant than ever. After a few days post-encounter, she was no longer jumpy, but her spear was always in her hand and she listened carefully wherever she went, making sure to step loudly enough for anything dangerous to hear her coming. She only allowed herself to think of Quinn when she was alone. But not now, she was working on her second bow, the first being broken when she'd met the buck. She didn't think that the other would work anyway. The pull was too light, and she wanted something heavier. She was positive she'd heard a turkey one day while out on hunt. Her ears were amazing these days, and she trusted them. Not to mention a deer or other birds. The more she trekked out amoung the forest, the more she found. She was hoping to find a lake or large pond for bigger fish or ducks. But, so far, the only water in the forest is the river.

She picked a small pan fish off of the smoke rack and peeled away the skin, grabbing at the flaky fish and putting it in her mouth. It was delicious, but she knew it would need more time. She wanted it smoked and at least a little dry so she could keep it with her when she left home. Putting it back over the seperate, low, smoking fire, she picked up her knife and set back to carving away the younger wood around the heartwood of her bow. She'd taken all the elastic out of her socks and braided it together as tight as it would go for her drawstring. It had taken it all the days during her recovery to work on her arrows. unable to find any feather from the small song birds in the trees above her, she'd taken feather shaped leaves and cut them in halve, sticking them in the slots she made. They flew straight when she threw them, and that's all she needed. All that was left was the bow she was working on now. Until it was done, she'd work on smoking her fish and meat and expanding her knowledge about the forest around her.

As she carves the limbs of the bow to what she thinks is the proper thickness for the pull, Rachel wonders if they called called Artie. He was away at a camp where he's a counselour for kids in wheelchairs. She doesn't want them to worry, any of those left behind. Did Michael call Grandpa Andrew? She definately didn't want him to worry about her. He had been at risk for a heart attack when the singer was twelve, and she had forced him to eat healthy. So little brunette had taken on the challenge with him to make it easier for him. So they'd both become vegan. Something that was for a week and nineteen hours now, over. She dreamed of him sometimes, nothing like the first night. Just of when she'd been a kid and her grandmother had still been alive. How happy he'd been. Her grandma Olivia had died when Rachel was thirteen.

Her grandpa had been so sad. And one day, Rachel had approached him and told him that he didn't have to cry anymore. When he asked her why, she said that he didn't have to be sad because he had Rachel now. That she'd always be there. That she'd always love him. And when she went to New York for Broadway, she'd bring him with her. 'I'm your girl now, poppy.' That's what she'd said. She couldn't help but feel guilty now, that maybe he was crying at night again and noone was there to be his girl anymore.

07:19:06

00:30

"I want to be angry, to yell and say that she had no business doing the things she did. Because it's my life. But I can't. Why is that Britt?" She put out her cigarette and stomped on the pack, tossing it in the garbage can. Rachel wouldn't like it if she was smoking again.

"Because you love her." Brittany said from on top of Santana who had her hands wrist deep in blonde hair.

"Yea...I can't believe she told him what corsage to get. I should have known. It was so perfect. I was having fun until Finn jumped all over Jesse for nothing. I don't know if she told you this, but when I ran to the bathroom after that, I slapped her. hard."

"Wait, you hit her? That's not cool, Quinn. Even I would never really hit her. I just like intimidating her sometimes." Santana sat up a bit, rearanging her posture.

"I was so angry about Finn and Jesse. I yelled at her. That I didn't win prom queen because everyone knows that Finn would've rather been with her than with me. She tried to say it wasn't true, but I was so _angry _I couldn't control it for that half second. I apologized, and I was crying and Rachel told me that I was the prettiest girl she'd ever met, but that I was alot more than that. After everything I've ever said to her, the things I did to her, calling her ugly and all that. And that's what she tells me when she gets the chance. After that, she got me thinking that I could be more than what everyone wanted from me. And I am now. One more thing to chalk up to Rachel. So...yea, I love her."

00:32

07:23:00

Pulling the string back again, Rachel breaths deep, letting it out and letting her fifth arrow fly before taking in another large dose of clean oxygen. The arrow sinks into the wood and the string strikes the smooth wood peice on her right wrist as it settles. The several red welts under the wood were a swiftly learnt lesson for the brunette. She retrieves the arrows from the tree after she approaches it, placing it in the quiver on her back. She had to cut out the lining in her shirt to make it. The singer still doesn't have the hang of weaving with the basswood fibers. She smiles when she's done. The arrows dug a god three inches into the hardest tree could find. If she finds a small deer or that turkey she'll eat good for a long while.

The heads of the arrows seem good and hard and she thinks she'll need that for a deer. Rachel had to burn the tips to make them hard like that, something she doesn't remember learning. She's walking along the creek again now, and it's not long until she stops, having heard a brushing of leaves or twigs on the ground. When she finds it, its a lean, grey rabbit, right in front of her, nibbling on something she can't see. She draws the bow, and slowly nocks an arrow. She's got her aim on now, and she exhales as quietly as she can before letting that arrow fly. The rabbit turns at the sound and it's caught through both shoulders. Rachel's on it in seconds, and when the brunette brings he knife down she runs it across the throat, ceasing the life of yet another animal. She cleans it as quick as she can as not to attract any animals and then strings it through the arrow hole on her hip.

The diminutive girl's really quiet as she continues. Maybe there's another, she thinks. Rachel treks on past her fish hole for forty five minutes before turning back and grabbing a fish when she passes it again, going through the cleaning routine and heading home. She was out for three hours and home is so welcome when Rachel gets there that she just lays down right after she closes the door she lashed together to protect her from anything wishing for a warm home as much as she was when she was on the trek back. As the singer throws the fish and the rabbit on the smoker and grabs the fish she had a bite of before, she starts to wish she had been smart enough to bring proper items on her 'escape'. An aluminum pot or even a tin can would be amazing.

As Rachel lays back, her arms under her head, she let's herself think about Quinn. If she ever gets out of this place, the first thing she's gonna do is find Quinn and say everything that she meant to before she got here. The second thing she's going to do is kiss her soundly and tell that Quinn she loves her.

08:00:10


	5. A Reunion Long Awaited

The Heart Grow Fonder

by Elitemassacre6 aka Britt

Chapter 5: A Reunion Long Awaited

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews for the last chapter and all the favs/subs too. I'm glad you're all enjoying this story. If you're interested in what the inspiration for this story, you can check it out on my tumblr. .com/post/10437200786/the-heart-grow-fonder

186:01:52

The feeling is intoxicating, more than any Noah-made drink she's ever had. She inside Quinn, and every time she pulls out so she can thrust back in, the tight walls around her two fings try to hold her inside. There a soft popping sound as the stiff nipple that was in between her lips falls away and she kisses Quinn who has her eyes shut tight. Rachel reaches for the other nipple and rolls it between her thumb and forefinger, smiling as Quinn arches into.

"Mmm...mmore." is moaned from in between full pink lips and Rachel is ready to oblige.

When she pulls out, she slips in three fingers and the shuddered inhale that Quinn lets slip is her wage. Rachel'd teased Quinn for twenty minutes before actually being inside her, real words start to cease coming from that mouth she loves so much and all she can hear is heavy, stinted breathing.

She brings the pad of her thumb up to the swollen clit between pale thighs and rubs in tight circles while also curving her fingers up as she pulls them out before quickening her pace as she shoves them back inside of the pink haired girl. Her free hand is still rolling a pebbled nipple between her fingers and she pulls the other between her lips, nibbling on it with her teeth.

When the brunette feels Quinn tightening around her finger she slips her left hand into pink locks, pulling the girls head up to lock eyes with her.

"Open your eyes Quinn." She presses a soft kiss to her lips. When the eyes open and blown, darkened eyes are in her view she stares into them. "Look at me, Quinn. Look in my eyes baby."

As the former blonde falls over the edge she stares into near black eyes, breathing heavily before she falls limp on the bed beneath her.

"Rachel...god." She can hardly speak, so instead she settles for closing her eyes as she kisses the brunette, tasting herself on soft, swollen lips, the same for her the woman whose tongue is in her mouth.

After a few minutes Quinn can feel Rachel's lips on her pulse point, sucking, licking, and biting.

"Again?" she hears whispered in her ear. She laughs loudly, shaking her head.

"I couldn't go again if I was the energizer bunny. You wore me out, baby."

"I aim to please." Rachel responds as a few minutes. The brunette isn't as tired as she thought she was, and so, sneakily, she shifts her body, placing a muscular thigh at the apex of Quinn's and pressing up. The gasp that follows is music to her ears. The slick wetness that covers her thigh is also good. She kisses Quinn playfully on the forehead before switching her position again to put her head between creamy thighs. When she takes the swolen clit in front of her between her lips and sucks on it, she knows by the words that follow that she's won.

"I guess I could go again."

186:14:12

When Rachel wakes she sighs deeply, wiping all the sweat from her face. That dream again. She's been having it every night for two weeks. So for two weeks she woke up every morning sexually frustrated. Was she at home, or even back at the camp site she left behind six months ago, she'd fix the problem herself, but not out here. All evidence of the buck attack was gone but the memory of the shock and pain. She was constantly focused now, and though hard, her life was good here. The only thing missing was Quinn Fabray.

The thing that she found strangest of all about this forest was the fact that she'd been here six months, it should be winter. But it was still the same summer it had been when she had lucked upon finding this place. So she'd supposed if she ever got out, she'd remember it as the forest of endless summer. She'd read Brian's Winter, and the last thing she needed was more hardship than she thought she could handle. Her home had changed alot since she'd finally gotten the hang of braiding and weaving the basswood bark. She'd finally been able to put her shoestrings back in her shoes at the first oppurtunity. She now strang fish and held her water bottle on bark string.

She'd found a tree that'd fallen over and had these huge knots on it that she thought was interesting, so she'd used her hatchet to collect a few and carved them into bowls that she was now able to use for water.

Standing up from her bed, Rachel drank down her tea and grabbed her gear, putting it all in the right place. Her bow and quiver behind her left shoulder. Her spear in the sheath she'd made behind her right shoulder. Her hatchet which she'd named Lucy on her right hip and knife behind that. Hanging off her left hip was a bag for food and water she'd made from weaved together bark twine. Grabbing everything she needed, Rachel opened the door and stepped outside her home to the forest. She grabbed her bow from her shoulder and crouched down a minute, smelling the air and listening, watching for anything for any danger around her. Everything seemed clear, so she walked down her hill, heading towards deer creek and crossing the small wooden bridge she'd built there.

When she passed the blueberries, she ate a few before walking onwards to her bird trap. Her first month being here, she'd saw a fat chicken like bird and shot an arrow into it's breast. When she checked the area it'd just come from, Rachel found a few eggs. These days, she caught the birds in traps that didn't hurt them, but captured them, and kept them in the chicken coop-like mini building she'd built at home. She gathered seeds and insects for them, and they laid her eggs once in a while. When a heavy summer rain storm had come in and swept away the deer she'd hunted for the night before, she'd eaten that first bird. When she came upon the trap and found it empty, but sprung, she reset it and placed more food underneath, she'd check it again tomorrow.

She checked the last few traps, and carefully placed the birds in the bag on her hip before hurrying home to put them in the coop. Grabbing two eggs and a venison steak, she sat down in front of her cooking fire. The large, smooth, and flat river stone she'd found months ago heated up hot enough to cook both of them. She dropped a tab of rendered bird fat on the stone and watched it melt before she cracked her eggs and dropped the insides on the stone, doing the same with the steak. While breakfast cooked, Rachel went back inside the house to put everything but her hatchet and knife away. She took a large gulp juice she'd made by crushing blueberries through a weaved bark sieve and sat back. Yea. Her life was good. Sometimes, she thinks that if it weren't for the fact that Quinn was still in that outside world, she wouldn't want to ever leave.

186:15:01

376:01:32 / 00:25

She's so startled when she see's them. They look just a little bit older, slightly wider. And it's such a miniscule difference that Rachel is sure she wouldn'd have noticed it at all a year and eleven days ago. But she does now, as well as the four birds above her, and the white tail doe two hundred yards to the west. She wonders, if she sticks her head in between them will she see back to that lake and that sandy shore. Cautiously, she walks toward them, both her hands reaching out to touch them before she sticks her head between them. She only sees the forest beyond, so she walks through and suddenly, she's back.

The first thing that seems wrong is the rowboat off to her right side. Shouldn't it be old, dry, and broken by now? lying up on muddy shore for more than a year? But it isn't. The boat looks exactly the same as she left it. Walking towards the boat and setting down her water bottle, Rachel pushes it back into the water before starting to row her way back across the still placid waters. All of this is so familiar. Along with the same dreams of she and Quinn together making love, she's also been having dreams of her return to a land she no longer feels she belongs to.

When she pulls the boat back upon the sandy shore she left from so long ago, Rachel takes a look down at daffy duck. She's only been gone for fifty five minutes, and the magic of the place she calls home becomes so understandable now. It's only now that the brunette realizes that there's no spear on her shoulder, no bow and no arrows, no game bag. All that remains is her hatchet and her knife. When she checks her pockets everything is there again.

As the singer walks back towards the camp site, the first thing she see's and recognizes is bright pink hair, waving in fragrant wind. She walks closer to her and takes a seat beside her, pushing her hair out of her face with hands that haven't been this soft in a long time. When Quinn looks over at her, her eyes aren't cold and hard and it's all she's wanted, so she listens.

"I'm sorry for pushing you away, Rachel. You get so close to tearing down these walls, and there's something in me that's trying to protect the heart inside me and the one inside you too. I feel like I'm poison to a relationship. Especially ours. But I don't want to lose you to that. I don't want to lose you to anything. I need you, Rachel. I need you, and I want you, and it's because i'm so in love with you that I'm able to bite back the miniscule part of my that wants to run away and hide and pretend I never said these things." All the words that she's spoken are honest and in her eyes, so Rachel grabs her hand and squeezes it with a nod before starting to speak words she's held inside for a year.

"Hrg..." Rachel has to clear her throat, because even though she's back here now and everything is almost back to how it was, she hasn't actually spoken at all in a year. "I'm sorry for all the stupid things I did. Like forcing myself into your business with Sam, and telling Finn about Noah and everything. And about trying to run your life in my ridiculous micro-managing way. I'm sorry I ever let Finn anywhere near you after prom and I'm sorry I wasn't there to prove him wrong when he said you don't feel. I'm sorry I never told you why we broke up when you asked. I'm sorry I never told you that I love you before this moment. And I'm sorry I never kissed before this moment."

The brunette moved to the former blonde's chair and straddled her waist. Soon, Rachel's mouth was open again and against Quinn's. She kissed her softly, so softly. The passion she'd been harboring for so long could wait a little while.

"I love you Quinn Fabray. I've always loved you, and I should have told you. Okay?" She kissed the silent pink haired girl again, sucking her pink lower lip between her teeth and dragging them across it as she pulled away, enjoying the sound produced when she let it go.

"Okay." The smile that took over her features was just as wonderful as the forest of endless summer and Rachel couldn't help but beam at her as a result.

"You're beautiful when you smile like that. Though I'd love to sit in your lap and kiss you till you're ripping my clothes off, I've got to go talk to someone, then I'll come back, and we'll do that, okay, baby?"

"Yea. You hungry, want me to make you something?" Quinn asked, that smile on her lips and in her eyes.

Rachel thought about that. She'd eaten dinner right before she left home. But she was hungry. One more strange thing to add to the list. She nodded her head and pressed a quick kiss to the former blonde's lips.

"Yea. I'm really hungry. A steak and a salad would be great."

"A steak? Is this a joke, Rachel? A steak as in meat?" That beautiful eyebrow was raised and Rachel had to think back. Wait, she had been a vegan when she left, hadn't she. No more.

"Yea. I'll tell you about it later." The singer walked away as Quinn looked at her questionly. She walked into the large cabin and saw Santana at the kitchet table reading a book she didn't recognize.

"Hey, San, where's Brittany?" She asked, sitting down across from her and tilted her book up to read it's title. The Aenid. Rachel knew both Santana and Quinn were big readers but didn't know about Santana's interest in classical literature.

"That depends. Did you talk to Q already?" The latina said from behind her book, she continued to read as she spoke.

"I did." Rachel said, joy evident in her voice.

"Finally. You two are a little ridiculous. My baby's around the corner at that little beach."

"Okay, I'll let you enjoy your book, goodbye."

When Rachel found Brittany sitting at the shore off to the west of the cabin, she sat down beside her. The blonde had a fishing pole in her hand and seemed to be having trouble catching fish with a worm and a hook. She could smell her from thirty feet away and smiled when she recognized it. Comfort. Chamomile and lilac or something of the sort.

She grabbed the first straight sapling she found on the way from where she'd recognized he sent and sitting down. If Brittany was having trouble catching fish, Rachel would teach her the way. They sat the for thirty minutes while Rachel worked on the simple four pronged weapon, and when she was done, she stood over the pool of fish which seemed to be larger than those she was used to. She thought they'd probably be slower.

"What happened to you while you were gone? Where'd you go?" Were the first words to spill from the blonde's lips. And Rachel smiled. This was why she loved her. She saw just as well as the brunette did, just differently. Rachel could see, smell, hear, feel things. Brittany could just sense a change in people that no one else could.

"I saw a boat on the dock when i went out there to try and calm down. I just wanted to escape. To get away. I rowed across to that little island in the middle of the lake. There were these two trees, and they were so beautiful. When I walked in between them I found myself there, in that forest of eternal summer. I was so lost at first, but the first night I was so tired, and I went to sleep. My grandpa came to me in a dream. Told me that I'd been granted the escape I'd wished for. I made a home and created a life there. The only thing tying me here was her. She's what brought me back. I'd been gone for more than a year when i saw them again, those trees. When I walked back through I found that everything was the way I left it." Rachel said as she slowly lowered her spear into the water, testing the distance between vision and reality.

"More than a year? Are you the same person as when you left?" Brittany asked as the answer was directly in front of her, having speared a fish and stuck the blade of a knife into the fishes head. She caught three more before she answered.

"No, and yes. I'm still Rachel. I still love Quinn, you, San; everyone. But i'm not weak, i'm not afraid. I see better, hear, smell, feel. I feel more alive. But i'm afraid that I may want to go back home, Brittany. That place is my home now. If I didn't know the whole time I was there that she loved me, i would have stayed."

Brittany looked out and to that island. She didn't see the trees Rachel mentioned. She'd seen them before too, but had thought nothing of it. She watched as Rachel fetched a fith fish, cleaned them all, and then opened her hand for Brittany to hand her the stringer.

"It's okay though, that they aren't there anymore. I have her, and you and the rest of this family. I'll be okay." Rachel stood up after string up the fish and nodded her head towards the cabin for Brittany to follow her. As they walked, Rachel watched the island fade from her view. Soon, they were back at the cabin, and Rachel started the fire pit before laying her fish on the grill for Brittany, her spear in her hand. The muscular boy walked up behind her and she smelled his familiar scent before she heard him talking about rematches.

"Rach...is that a...no way!" She heard from behind her.

"Yes, it is, Michael." She grinned largely.

"It's a fish spear? You made a fish spear?" He leaned over her shoulder and onto the grill to see the five fish already cooking there. "No way, that's so awesome. When you'd make that? Wanna teach me?"

"Calm down, Mike. Yea, I'll teach you after we eat. I can teach you how to make a bow too. It's a little harder, but worth the work."

He furrowed he brow questionably. "When'd you have time to make a bow?"

She smile lopsidely. "I'll fill you in later. After dinner."

As she said the words, her girlfriend appeared next to her with a plate, a medium rare steak cut up for her and a beer in her hand. Rachel licked her lips appreciatively and stuck the fork in a large peice before slowly setting it in her mouth, her eyes closing at the taste.

"So good baby. Ugh... I love you for this. And other things..." She licked her lips clean before pressing them to Quinn's.

"Other things?" The former blonde said, her trademark eyebrow elegantly raised over her bright eyes. A wide smirk played across beautiful lips.

"Yep. Lots of other things. I think i'll have to explain them to you later tonight."

Once everyone was seated around the huge outdoor table, everyone started eating, the few people that had eyes, started to notice that strange food on Rachel's plate.

"Whoa, Rach, what's with the steak, and the fish?" David asked

"I was just going to ask you that, Rae. Something you wanna tell us? Santana chipped in.

Kurt just narrowed his eyes at her as he listened to the questions. She looked at him and nodded, another person to tell the truth to.

"Look, I'm only going to explain this once. I'm not a vegan anymore. Enough, okay."

"This morning you yelled at me for having bacon within thirty six inches of your fruit." Qunn said quietly, more confused that anyone.

"Yea... I was overreacting, and I'm sorry. Did I mention how much I love you for this steak?"

Quinn grinned, a silly happiness in her eyes. "And other things?"

"Yea, baby, and other things." Rachel whispered in her girls ear, her teeth on the girls earlobe. When she pulled back, she buried her hand in pink locks again, pressing a passionate kiss on also-pink lips.

"Whoa...hot! How about you ladies let me get in on that act-" He was caught by a slap to the back of the head by Lauren

Though Rachel noticed the look on Finn's face, she ignored it. She had more to...not worry about, but enjoy. When dinner was done and Rachel was full, she went and helped Santana and Brittany finish the dishes, then went to find Quinn. She figured that she'd be by the bonfire or the chairs she'd found her by earlier. When she heard Finn's voice and Quinn's too mixing together at loud volume she took off in a run. She found Finn standing tall over the former blonde who was sitting in the same chair Rachel'd found her in.

"- fuck is wrong with you? She's not like you, she's not a stupid whore, a bitch like you! Do you really think you're good enough for her? You aren't, you fucking slut...you..you're nothing!" All of this had Rachel regretting her increased hearing. She was still more than twoo hundred yards away and could hear every word, even Quinn's hushed 'Finn...Stop.'

It was when she saw her girlfriend's chair tip over with her on it that she realized that she should be careful. Finn was in serious danger from her now, and Rachel knew that if he actually touched the woman she loved, the brunette would kill him. She saw Quinn's pale fist high in the air above Finn's head and knew he'd picked her up and was shaking her like a ragdoll from her wrist while he yelled at her. She'd never seen him like this, and she hoped never would again. She removed her hatchet from her sheath and struck him across his ribs with the back, blunt end of it. Catching the pink haired girl and laying her down gently in a chair afterwards, Rachel looked back to the hulking menace across from her as he reached towards her girl for half a second before she drobbed the hatchet and started throwing her fists, knees, and feet into his body in various places. She was going to kill him.

"

All of a sudden she was pulled away from the stupid ape by soft, beautiful arms and held for a few minutes as she caught her breath. She hissed as she felt knuckles, bruised and scraped. The...thing...she'd attacked lay unconscious on the ground a few feet from her. She heard her baby calling for help, and then suddenly her eyes were gazing into hazel. Worry, love, the inability to understand were all written in those eyes. She closed her own and when she opened them again she looked up at the sky. She could see all the stars now and it was strang. She was so used to her few stars that it was overwelming to have them all in her view now. When she looked down, bright blue eyes came into view came into view and she heard Santana telling Puck to lock Finn away in his room.

Brittany picked her up briday style and Rachel was embarassed, so she called for Quinn, who held her hand till they were all back in brittana's room. Rachel was sat down on the bed and Quinn curled in beside her while Santana and Brittany took a seat on the handcarved bench across from them.

After resting for a few minutes, Rachel opened her eyes and sat up, bringing her girl with her. If anything, Quinn should be the one who was carried in here, and she voiced that thought before being quiet again for several minutes.

"Enough of this bull shit! Quinn what the fuck happened? Why the hell did that god damn gorilla come at you like that?"

"I don't really know. I mean I do. He walked up to me and asked me what was going on with me and Rach, and I told him that it should be obvious, we weren't hiding anything. That we were together and that I love her." As the former blonde spoke, still in shock about the suddeness of the whole thing, Rachel held her hand and ran her fingers up and down her arm to calm her.

"Then he just started yelling and getting so so angry. He asked me what the fuck I did to her because she isn't gay, and isn't a stupid whore or bitch like me. That I'm not good enough for you..." Quinn said quietly when she turned and looked at the brunette who shook her head no furiously at those words.

"He said that I was nothing. Nothing but a-"

"I heard what he said. No, baby. He's so wrong. He's always been wrong. You aren't any of those things he said to you. You are literally everything to me, Quinn. Everything. I can deal with giving up with allmost all of this. My life, my family, my hopes and dreams. But I couldn't live without you. Because you deserve me like no one else ever will. Okay? I came back. For you." She kissed away salty tears and pressed her lips to pink lips, smiling hopefully.

"Came back from where?" that eyebrow that the brunette loves so much is raised high again and Rachel looks over at Brittany and Santana. She's never known the blonde to keep a secret from the latina and when they both nod, she sighs. This could easily be where she loses the former blonde. Because the story is a bi unothodox, and had i been anyone else telling Rachel, she's not sure she'd believe them either.

"So. When I left earlier-" She stops because she hears feet hitting wood in the next room over and she knows it's Finn, so she reaches for Santana's phone from the table next to her and dials Puck quickly.

"Yea...I can hear him, he's awake. I think he's trying to open the door. Hold on...I think he's opening it." Rachel stood up from the bed and opened the door, walking out and she saw the lumbering giant immediately.

"What the hell just happened? Where the fuck is that bitch Quinn? Who knocked me out...Rachel?" When he walked towards her, she backed up, locking her feet and hands into the frame of the door where the girls waited to keep him out.

"Is she in there? That bitch!" Rachel wasn't really sure what was going on. The boy didn't really look like himself at all and when he push the door open above her head and saw Quinn sitting there with the other two girls, the rage she'd seen earlier took over his face He pushed the brunette hard and she fell back until Brittany caught and righted her. Finn reached Quinn who kept backing up, fear in her eyes. Reaching for her hatcet again, she took the blunt end and smashed it into his knee until he fell.

When he did, she grabbed him by the collar and dragged him backwards till he was flat on the floor holding his leg. Rachel wrapped her hands tightly around his neck and pressed her knee into his sternum, pressing down with all her weight.

"If you ever...ever touch my Quinn again, you fucking ape, I'll kill you! Do you understand?" She decreased her hold on his neck and weighed down on his sternum a bit more.

"Do you understand?" He nodded yes as quickly as he could.

"I love her Finn. Don't you touch her." She said looking up and seeing Noah in the door, wet and with his shirt off. "Don't ever come near her again. I will kill you Finn Hudson." She spoke clearly as she was carried out by the jewish boy and David. Those still standing in the door watched her carefully, having never heard her voice like that. She sounded so honest about the promise.

"Why were you just treatening to kill my brother?" Kurt said, an eyebrow raised above a single blue eye.

"Your...brother.." She said, words dripping with acid. "Hurt the woman I love earlier. I knocked him out, and when he woke up, he came after her again. Tried to hurt my Quinn again."

She calmed down and held herself up by a hand on the wall.

"I didn't even recognize him, Kurt." The brunette boy walked away and went towards the room to watch over his unconscious brother.

When Brittany got up and shooed everyone away, closing the door, Rachel started to let herself relax again. When she felt arms around her, she smiled grimly at the hazel eyes that stared back at her.

"Rachel, your hands." The hazel-eyed girl wispered, kissing her girlfriend softly. "Come on, sit down, Tell me you were going to, and then we'll go to the room and I'll try and make it better."

"Did you learn how to kick ass like that while you were over there, Rae? Cuz that was some Navy Seal shit." Santana said, air boxing jokingly across from the two girls on the bed.

"What is she talking about, Rachel? Over there?"

"When you told me to go away earlier, I went down to the water to try and relax and get away. I saw the rowboat up there and the little island right across from the dock and decided I'd go and escape over there. So I went over and pulled the boat up and I walked between these two tall trees. And when I walked inside, I smell running water, and I was confused, so i kept walking and I found a creek. Needless to say, I was confused. That island is only around three hundred yards square. I kept walking until I found...

"A year? That's..." Quinn said, slowly kissing Rachel's sorely bruised knuckles as they lay in the singers bed together.

"A long time. Yea. It was home. But I wasn't happy. You weren't there. I missed this whole family, but I thought about you everyday."

"I'm sorry about the buck." Quinn wispered, pulling up the singer's shirt to press slow, lingering, kisses to the singer left side where the bruises had long since vanished.

"It wasn't your fault. I was just careless. I'm glad that when I think about you now, I know you're never too far for me to reach." She said, looking down at the hazel eyed beauty.

"You know what baby?" Quinn asked, bottom lip between her teeth. She was still kissing Rachel's abs intermittently while using her black-painted nails to scratch up and down her lower torser and Rachel arched her back as nimble fingers rolled her nipple betwen themselves.

"Wh- What?"

"Every dream you ever had in that forest came true. You dreamed about coming home, and you did. You dreamed of finding a place to make a home while you were there, and you did. You dreamed about the two of us doing this..."

She said as she stood on her knees, pulling off the diminutive girl's shorts and panties, she'd already stepped out her clothes and had rid the brunette of her shirt and bra a few moments before. When she layed her body over the singer's and kissed her passionately, hands buried in silky brown locks, she was just as naked. She buried two fingers deep into her Rachel and captured the moan in her mouth before she spoke again.

"And we are."

A/N: Whoa...so we're done with this. It was really fun writing something not so typical, and I hoped you guys enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing. Wrote this whole song while listening to the Goo Goo Doll's Dizzy Up The Girl. Don't know whether that was a help or a hinderance. You can let me know. So far noone's noticed the doctor who easter egg I left in chapter four. "The only water in the forest is the river." yea. was fun dropping that in. Thanks for reading guys, Ciao!


End file.
